Easy Sheet Cake with Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting
Yellow Cake is an old fashioned cake made with a rich blend of butter, eggs, and buttermilk for a tender butter cake that’s perfect for everyday celebrations or when you just feel like baking.This classic cake recipe might be the most traditional of them all. Unlike white or vanilla cake, this is a simple and rich recipe made with butter and whole eggs which yields a golden crumb and tender cake. This particular yellow cake recipe also adds in egg yolks, a bit of vegetable oil, and uses buttermilk to bring this moist yellow cake recipe to life!
This cake has the reverse creaming method, so it doens’t start with the normal steps where you take the butter and sugar and beat it till its light. The reverse cream method was poineered by Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of ‘ The cake Bible’!
The combination of Baking powder and soda is very important when you have certain acidic ingredients and this recipe uses butter milk, which is a great tenderizer and contributes to great texture. And because its a yellow cake, theres a higher proportion of yolks, giving a nice bright color. Even thought its a butter based cake, adding a few tablespoons of oil keeps it extremely moist and pliable. Butter cakes have a tendency to dry out sometimes so this a is good tip to use.
WHAT CAN I USE INSTEAD OF BUTTERMILK?
Buttermilk is used in this recipe due to its high acidity. Combined with baking soda, the two work together to break down gluten and create a light and tender texture.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own! Measure out one cup of milk, minus a tablespoon. Then add one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice. Give it a stir and let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes to curdle.
How To Make It As A Layer Cake
It is super easy to make this yellow cake recipe from scratch, but it’s VERY important to make sure that ALL ingredients are room temperature before beginning.
Then you’ll prepare your batter and divide it evenly between two round cake pans that have been lined with parchment paper. bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick comes clean from the center of the cake.
Why Do Cake Ingredients Need To Be Room Temperature?
Room temperature ingredients blend together better to create an emulsion that traps air and results in a lighter and fluffier texture when baking. It takes most ingredients about 30 minutes to come to room temperature once removed from the fridge.
Butter: At room temperature, butter creams better with other ingredients. When mixed with sugar, like in this recipe and many others, the sugar creates air pockets in the softened butter which allows the yellow cake to bake evenly and turn out fluffy.
Eggs: When eggs are room temperature they create more volume when whipped than cold eggs. Adding cold eggs can also resolidify the fat in the butter resulting in clumps. This recipe calls for additional egg yolks and it’s important to note that eggs are easier to separate when they are cold.
NOTES: I halved the recipe and used a 8” by 8” square pan.
Ingredients
1¾ cups—398gms unsalted butter, room temperature, divided, plus more for pan
3¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
2 cups granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1¾ tsp salt, divided
½ tsp. baking soda
2 large eggs plus 5 large egg yolks…(I used 3 yolks for my halved recipe)
1¼ cups buttermilk, room temperature
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. vanilla extract, divided
170gms cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Sprinkles (for serving)
Preheat oven to 170°. Smear room-temperature butter all over bottom and sides of a 13x9" baking dish with your fingertips. Sprinkle a light dusting of flour into pan, then shake pan to coat all over; tap out excess flour.
Whisk 2 cups granulated sugar, 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, ½ tsp. baking soda, and remaining 3¼ cups flour in a large bowl.
Whisk 2 eggs, 5 egg yolks, 1¼ cups buttermilk, 2 Tbsp. oil, and 1 Tbsp. vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth.
Cut 226gms butter into 1" pieces and add to bowl with dry ingredients. (Now's a good time to make sure your butter is really at room temp—as in, you should be able to make an impression in the butter with your finger. If it's too firm, you won't be able to properly incorporate it into the flour.) Using an electric mixer on low speed, slowly increasing speed to medium, beat until butter is worked into dry ingredients and mixture looks like coarse meal, 4–5 minutes. There shouldn't be any dry flour or visible chunks of butter at this point.
Make a well in center of flour mixture and pour in half of buttermilk mixture. Starting on low speed and slowly increasing to medium, beat until all of flour mixture is hydrated.
Add remaining buttermilk mixture and beat on low speed until liquid is incorporated. Increase speed to high and beat until mixture is satiny smooth, light, and thick, about 1 minute.
Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth into corners in an even layer.
Bake cake until top is golden brown, firm to the touch, and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 45–55 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Make icing while cake cools. Using electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the cream cheese and remaining butter in a medium bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add 2 cups powdered sugar, ¼ cup cocoa powder, and remaining ¾ tsp. salt and beat again, scraping down sides of bowl, until completely smooth.
Add remaining 1 tsp. vanilla and continue to beat until fluffy and lightened in color, another minute.
Smooth icing over top of cooled cake (it should not be at all warm to the touch, or else the icing will melt).
Top cake with sprinkles, if desired. Cut into pieces and serve.
Do Ahead: Cake can be baked and frosted 2 days ahead. Chill until icing is solid, then cover with plastic wrap and keep chilled. Bring to room temperature before serving.
